TAIPEI: Lyudao Prison is the place of detainment for Taiwan's toughest, most violent criminals and the site of a program that has helped to change behavior of inmates and contain their violent urges.

There was Hu, who got double life sentences for a couple of homicides 13 years ago. In prison, his violent nature only worsened. He was a trouble maker. He no longer feared punishment, battled fellow inmates and fought his way in and out of one prison after another. Finally the problem prisoner ended up in the maximum security Lyudao Prison.

Hu was undeterred. His disruptive, combative nature was given full vent.

"He couldn't go through a day without beating someone," said Luydao director Tsai Shie-lih.

He was thrown into the "calming-down room", a padded cell for violent inmates to cool off. Even in there Hu found a way to let loose his aggression: he stripped off his underpants and used them to damage the light.

After six months of not getting along with anyone, Hu agreed to try the prison's spirituality program. After four months in the program, he started to change his ways.

Until then, he'd never written a letter. He started writing to his family, telling them he repented his crimes. Hu asked the forgiveness of family members. Most important to him: he urged his 20-year-old son not to follow his father's poor example.

"I'll serve my sentence conscientiously," he said in his letters.

Lyudao Prison occupies 3.7 hectares on Lyudao Island, and it brought the island ill fame, as "Devil's Island", because of the violent nature of the inmates confined there and because the prison was the most secure of all of Taiwan's correctional facilities.

The nickname, "Devil's Island", is largely forgotten now, Tsai told justice chief Wang Ching-feng during his visit last week.

With "transparent management and the power of religion", Lyudao inmates have found a way out of the violence, Tsai said.

Tsai assumed the office of prison director two years ago.

His first change in the rules was to abandon the policy that forced all prisoners to wear ankle cuffs. Ankle cuffs became restricted to prisoners posing security risks.

Tsai had surveillance cameras installed in every corner of the prison to alert prison guards as soon as fights broke out.

At one time, there were an average of 40 violent incidents a month at Lyudao Prison. The number dropped to 20 three months after the new measures were implemented. Now, it's below 10, Tsai said.

The punishment-oriented approach was replaced with a program aimed at awakening the spirituality of inmates.

Tsai said that the inmates are asked to undertake introspection and to review their faults in a quiet environment. A team of counselors, including volunteers of different religions and psycho-therapists, worked with them in individual sessions. And every day there are three "noble silence" periods, during which none are allowed to speak.

The regimen has proved powerful with some of the most difficult inmates.

Liu, 27, was jailed for robbery. His constant shouting and crying at the first prison where he was incarcerated earned him a ticket to Lyudao.

Liu, as it turned out, was beset by worries about his mother. Tsai gave him a Buddhist scripture to copy.

After completing a copy, he told Liu he could burn it in the Buddhist prayer room and the good karma generated would go to his mother.

Liu performed the ritual. After that, he calmed down and Liu remained a model prisoner until his release, Tsai said.

China Daily/CNA

(HK Edition 07/21/2009 page2)